And the crowds asked him, “What, then, should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.
Luke 3:10-14

Advent is the season in which we prepare for the arrival (Advent) of Jesus. Yet, there is a danger in overemphasizing the theme of preparation during Advent. When preparation becomes the dominant theme, then we turn the arrival of Christ into something we bring about rather than something we receive.

Jesus does not come because we worked hard to prepare for Him. Jesus arrives freely, on His own initiative, whether or not we are prepared. Ready or not, here Jesus comes!

And yet…

2 Peter addresses the question: why is it taking so long for the Lord to come? The response we get is perplexing: “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NRSV). Why is Jesus not here yet? Because God wants all to come to repentance. God is patient, waiting for us to repent before the day of the Lord comes.

Like the shepherd who searches for his lost sheep, like the woman who searches for her lost coin (Luke 15), there is no time limit for the wait or the search. The shepherd searches for his lost sheep until he finds it. The woman searches for her lost coin until she finds it. Is God currently in a similar kind of wait and search, waiting to bring the day of the Lord until the lost come to repentance? Are we waiting for Jesus to return? Or is Jesus waiting for us to be ready for that return?

I have more questions here than I have answers. But here is what I believe: Christ has died. Christ is Risen. Christ will come again.

Christ will come again. I do not make this happen with my preparation. But this season invites me to live my life as if this is the case. Most of us have spent some time in recent months investing time and money in preparing for winter. We got our snow blowers up and running, blew out irrigation lines, perhaps put on winter tires. Why? Because we believed that we were not going to live in perpetual summer. We believed winter was coming, and so we prepared. In the same way, the world is not going to continue perpetually as it is. The day of the Lord will come. There will be a judgment. There will be grace. Are we investing our lives accordingly? Are we prepared?

This brings to our next Advent song: “Dandelion Wine” by Thrice.

“Dandelion Wine” tells the story of someone who ignores the dangers of winter while dreaming of warmer days. “I skulk through the skeleton trees/The birds and the sun have both flown/I daresay, a damnable scheme/Is hidden in midwinter’s moan.” But what does this character do to combat the onslaught of winter? Drink dandelion wine: “Dandelion wine/Just half a spoonful, and everything’s fine/Summoning days/Of summer in bloom, chasing winter away.”

This recalls the words from Jesus we heard on the first Sunday of Advent: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly” (Luke 21:34).

While our hero stays inside drinking dandelion wine, the snow begins to pile up. “I should be raking my roof/The snow drift is dangerously high.” Eventually the weight collapses the cabin. “Crushed like a rat in a trap/Buried in beams of rough pine/It’s cold now, and catacomb black/Dreaming of dandelion wine.”

The crumbling of the house is judgment day. Dreaming of warmer days did not make that dream a reality. Avoiding the reality of winter did not keep the snow from piling up. Dandelion wine did nothing to melt the ice away.

Judgment is an often forgotten theme of Advent. John the Baptist warns us: “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cat down and thrown into the fire” (Luke 3:9). Mary sings in the Magnificat: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). Jesus does not come to affirm the world as it is. Jesus comes to judge the world so that it can be transformed, so that it can be saved.

We avoid this Advent word of judgment at our own peril. While many of us would rather spend these days getting into the “Christmas spirit,” we would be better served considering and contemplating those aspects of our life that will come under judgment when Christ arrives. What “roofs” in my life need to be “raked”? What needs to be removed? What habits need to be broken? What attitudes need to be mended?

Christmas is almost here. It is almost time to sing “Joy to the World”. But we must first ask: am I ready for the Lord to come? Am I ready for the Lord to invade my world and my life? Am I ready? And if not, what do I need to do?

John tells us: “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.”

My full Advent playlist can be accessed here.